Doctor Who - Box Art for 'Frontios, Time and the Rani'; Update About 'A Christmas Carol'

New classic stories in June; the 2010 Christmas special comes out next week with extras that won't necessarily be found on the eventual Season 6 set

Posted by David Lambert

2/07/2011

Last week the BBC and Warner Home Video announced the June 14th DVD release in North America for a pair of classic arcs: Doctor Who - Story #133: Frontios and Doctor Who - Story #148: Time and The Rani. At the time we had all the on-disc information about these two titles, but not the full-sized box art for either one (just a thumbnail-size image for Frontios). Today the BBC has provided the packaging pictures for both releases, and we've got those for you below.

This past Friday, the BBC America Shop's online blog had a new post that mainly spoke about broadcasts of another program, Being Human, but which also brought up that fans had been inquiring about the eventual home video release of Doctor Who - Season 6 (for the new series, of course). Now, that doesn't even begin airing anywhere in the world for a few more months, with half of the episodes being broadcast in the spring, and the other half being saved to be transmitted in the fall. But with next week's DVD and Blu-ray release of Doctor Who - A Christmas Carol (the 2010 Christmas Special) arriving in the USA and Canada, folks wonder if they should get it separately, or whether it would be on the Season 6 set if they waited. The BBC America Shop's blog says this:

"We have already received a lot of queries about the release plans for Doctor Who Season 6, and while we like to keep everyone posted, there are many people involved in these decisions. However, we can confirm (so far) that the much-lauded Christmas Carol special will be included in the deluxe complete series set, though not with all of its extras."

So you can get this special episode now if you don't want to wait, or you can be patient and get it with the main 2011 episodes...as with every previous Christmas special from the new program. However, if you do decide to wait, and don't pay for the separate disc (currently pre-selling at Amazon.com for $9.99 DVD or $13.99 Blu), then you will miss out on one of the extras. "One of"? Yes, per the press release there are only two: "Doctor Who at the Proms 2010" and the behind-the-scenes making-of pieces from "Doctor Who Confidential." Since the quote above says "not with all of its extras," then that means one of those won't be included on the season set.

We applaud the BBC for coming clean with the fans and saying this up front. However, both of these types of bonus items are considered to be very cool with the fans, and it's not going to sit well with those fans (including us here at TVShowsOnDVD!) for the studio to use this kind of move as an "incentive" for people to essentially buy the 2010 Christmas special twice over. Especially if it's the "Proms" that goes missing on the Season 6 set...we expect that there will be some mighty unhappy fans if that happens! Hopefully the studio will reconsider and include everything in the season set. Then fans who DO buy next week's title don't have to keep it. Speaking for myself, I would find a non-Who fan to give my extra copy to, hoping to spark their interest in the show!